Member Article

Local lad toasts tasty Teesside pub venture

The son of a well-known Teesside restaurateur has launched his own venture, re-opening a village pub.

Ross Serino, whose family have run the popular Santoro’s in Yarm since the 1970s, has opened The Tuns at Sadberge- formerly the Three Tuns- with his mother, Barbara Serino and his partner, Rebecca Osbaldeston, all from Yarm.

The couple have invested over £250,000 in the new business, which opened just before Christmas, and aim to offer people living in Sadberge and the surrounding areas informal dining, home-cooked food and a relaxing bar to enjoy local ales and fine wines as well as teas and coffees.

The Tuns has created five new jobs for people living in the village including a head chef- Helen Todd from Darlington- and bar and waiting staff.

Before the couple bought The Tuns, the pub had been closed for several months with fears that it might not re-open. The pub itself is housed in a grade II-listed building, which Ross and Rebecca spent 2013 carefully renovating and restoring to its former glory, and is thought to date back to the 18th century.

Ross has many years’ experience working in catering and hospitality having worked with his father in Yarm for many years. Speaking about the new venture, he said: “For many years I’ve wanted to run my own place. The Tuns at Sadberge was an ideal opportunity- in the past it has been a really popular village pub but, like so many, had been forced to shut and fallen into disrepair. From the moment we started work on the pub, the support and enthusiasm from people living in the village has been just fantastic.

“Our aim is to offer home-cooked food in relaxing surroundings and be a traditional village pub for locals and visitors alike. We opened just before Christmas to gauge the market and the response has been so encouraging- we really didn’t expect to be as busy so quickly. We’re really excited about 2014 and hope we can really breathe life back into a village pub.”

The Tuns serves food daily including dishes such as home-made fish and chips, chicken and mushroom pie, fresh fish and meat dishes, weekly Sunday lunches and The Tuns burger.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Addison .